Developing an innovative standardised image-based measure of adolescent mental health

我们了解人们心理健康的主要方式是通过书面问卷。这意味着我们听不到某些群体的声音，比如那些有读写能力或教育需求的人，神经分歧者，以及那些把英语作为第二语言的人。这些问卷通常是针对白色人群开发的，这意味着它们可能不太适合黑人和少数民族群体。基于图像的测量可能会解决其中的一些问题。这些措施在提问时使用图像来传达信息，让人们使用图像进行回答，或者使用图像来传达信息和回答。一个例子可以是使用滑动尺度来选择不同天气的动态图像，以代表不同的情绪状态。青少年心理健康问卷目前还没有广泛使用的图像化问卷，本研究的目的是增加心理健康问卷的包容性。我们将为8至18岁的年轻人开发基于数字图像的问卷。我们的项目有三个阶段。1.我们将研究现有的基于图像的心理健康问卷，以便我们在下一阶段有例子开始对话。我们将与一个由8到10名有心理健康困难经历的年轻人组成的多元化小组合作。他们将成为共同研究人员，这意味着他们将领导研究并参与其中。在6个研讨会上，我们将共同开发基于图像的问卷的内容和设计，然后测试和完善原型。我们将为合作研究人员提供培训和持续支持。从一开始，我们将讨论他们参与的目标，他们希望如何参与，以及任何支持需求。在这一阶段的开始，我们将与年轻人，研究人员和从业人员进行交谈，以了解他们希望通过基于图像的问卷来了解他们想要什么。我们将在共同开发期间再次与他们交谈，以获得他们对该产品的反馈。我们将与12至15名年轻人交谈，听取他们对问卷调查接近完成时的反馈。我们还将要求他们完成问卷，并在他们这样做的同时大声思考，这样我们就可以详细了解他们如何解释问卷以及是什么促使他们做出回答。主要输出将是一个可用于更大规模研究的问卷版本，称为青少年健康研究，以便对其进行全面测试。问卷和我们的研究材料将免费提供，以便其他人可以使用它，并重复研究，为其他主题开发类似的问卷。我们的目标是让年轻人能够领导研究。共同研究人员的参与将为那些在研究职业生涯中遇到额外障碍的年轻人提供获得研究经验的机会。我们的项目是根据我们丰富的患者和公众参与经验设计的，以确保年轻人领导研究的决策和进行。我们还将与一名年轻的同行研究人员合作，他们将接受培训和支持，参与项目的所有阶段和决策。这个项目将意味着，在未来，我们将能够更好地了解所有年轻人的心理健康，包括那些在研究中很少听到声音的群体。

The main way we find out about people's mental health is through written questionnaires. This means we do not hear the voices of certain groups, such as those with literacy or educational needs, neurodivergent people, and those with English as an additional language. These questionnaires have often been developed with White populations, meaning they may be less appropriate for people from Black and minoritized ethnic groups.Image-based measures may address some of these problems. These measures use images to convey information when asking questions, let people respond using images, or use images both to convey information and for responses. One example could be using a sliding scale to select between dynamic images of different weathers to represent different emotional states. There is no widely used image-based questionnaire for adolescent mental health.Our aim is to increase the inclusivity of mental health questionnaires. We will develop a digital image-based questionnaire for young people 8 to 18 years. There are 3 stages to our project.1. We will look at existing image-based mental health questionnaires, so that we have examples to start conversations in the next stage.2. We will work with a diverse group of 8 to 10 young people with lived experience of mental health difficulties. They will be co-researchers, meaning they will lead the research and take part in it. Over 6 workshops, we will co-develop the content and design of the image-based questionnaire, before testing and refining a prototype. We will provide training and ongoing support for the co-researchers. From the outset, we will discuss their goals of being involved, how they would like to be involved, and any support needs.At the start of this stage, we will speak to groups of young people, researchers, and practitioners to understand what they would like from an image-based questionnaire. We will speak to them again during co-development for their feedback on the questionnaire.3. We will speak to 12 to 15 young people to hear their feedback on the questionnaire when it is nearly finished. We will also ask them to complete it, thinking aloud as they do so we can understand in detail how they interpret the questionnaire and what drives their responses.The main output will be a version of the questionnaire that can be used in a larger study, called the Adolescent Health Study, so that it can be fully tested. The questionnaire and our research materials will be freely available so other people can use it and repeat the study to develop similar questionnaires for other topics.We aim to empower young people to be able to lead the research. The involvement of co-researchers will provide an opportunity to gain research experience for young people from groups that experience additional barriers to research careers. Our project has been designed based on our rich experience of patient and public involvement to ensure young people lead the decisions and conduct of the research. We will also work with a young person peer researcher who will be trained and supported to be involved in all stages and decisions of the project. This project will mean that in the future, we will be better able to understand the mental health of all young people, including those from groups who voice is seldom heard in research.